“Whoever controls the image controls modern history. In today’s media world, the power of the image is almost limitless. So we need those who best understand that power to police it vigorously. Which, of course, is where art comes in. Art’s domain is the image, too. And if the image isn’t doing what it should be doing – recording the truth – then art has a creative duty to patrol and protect that domain. We need rustlers-turned-sheriffs, hackers-turned-security chiefs. We need artists as we’ve never needed them before. So, has art risen to this challenge? Is it vigorously policing the world of the image? Is it hell.”
Tag: 04.20.08
Is Gone With The Wind A Flop-In-Waiting?
“Gone with the Wind, billed as ‘a play with music’, will be arguably the biggest West End opening of the year and represents an equally monumental gamble. Early word-of-mouth from those who have attended previews is not encouraging and has raised questions over whether the project is being rushed for financial reasons.”
Egyptian Colossi Rise Again
“Next year two giant statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III will begin to rise again, just a hundred meters behind his two existing colossi that mark the entrance to the temple. In the years to come, another two statues, still half-buried, will also be returned to their former upright position.”
More Than Iraq’s Ancient Treasures Have Been Destroyed
“The neglect of Iraq’s modern artistic production – wrapped up in the campaign to destroy any remnants of the Baathi regime, and therefore Iraq’s collective memory” has been extreme.
AudioBlogs Are Transforming Music Criticism
“The legal area they occupy may still be grey, but audioblogs represent a happy medium for industry and fans alike. The range of music available is marvellous, and yet there’s something hugely appealing about being able to concentrate in detail on a single song.”
How Will The Next Great London Be Decided?
“Methodologies of assessment differ and criteria of value can be debated, but few people would disagree that right now, London is the financial, creative, media, music and possibly even social and sporting centre of the planet.” But its architecture? Looking beyond the record of the current mayor, what will the new London look like?
Needed: Tax Breaks For UK Art Donors
“In Britain, there are tax benefits when works of art are given to the nation – but the donor has to be dead. This is the acceptance-in-lieu scheme, which gives tax relief on the deceased’s estate. Through Gift Aid it is possible to make gifts of cash, of stocks and shares, and even land while you are still alive, and get both the financial benefits and sense of personal reward from doing so. But this is not the case with objects that would be valuable additions to museums, galleries, libraries and archives.”
TV Pilot Season Shrinks After Strike
Pilot season is the time TV producers cast for shows for th following season. This year though, pilot season is a shadow of what it usually is…
A Bold Plan For The Goodman Theatre
Robert Falls “plans to take the Goodman to the world and bring the world of theater to the Goodman. His aim, he said, is nothing less than to help America tend to its global reputation, a priority to which the next president of the United States will surely need to commit, ‘whichever of the three candidates is elected’.”
The Writing Life…
“Is it possible to lead a dedicated literary life in the billionaire-filled, media-crazed New York of today? To be heedless of the material world as you burrow into novels and ideas the way the old Partisan Review gang did in the ’40s and ’50s, to come up with notions that rock the intellectual landscape? And if so, who exactly is still paying attention?”